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In Britain, 17 people die of suicide daily on average, and men are three times more likely to take their own lives as women. Suicides have tremendous impact on humans emotionally and trigger financial costs, so we decided to run a three-day Pop-Up Lab in London to understand how the insurance industry could contribute potential solutions for suicide prevention in the region.

Suicide: a societal and insurance industry challenge

When a claims managerfromRGAin theUKraised the issue of how our industry could help prevent suicides, webegan exploring theproblemand learnedofa number of people in the insurance industry whovolunteer with non-profit organizations that focus onsuicide prevention.

One of these is Samaritans, a UK non-profit. We learned of a Samaritans marketing campaign that displayed posters on a rail line, promoting their suicide hotline. The result? Suicides on the rail lines decreased by 20 per cent. This low-cost initiative clearly helped save many lives, as well as helping the rail industry serve their users better.

Considering how suicide affects our industry, healthcare and societyin general(we estimate the UK life insurance industry paid out more than £100m on suicide claims in 2017),we were eager to contribute.Running a sprint usingCookhouse Pop-Up Labwould give us the opportunity tolearn more andworkwith people directly impacted by this crisis in the region.If you think of Cookhouse Lab as a test kitchen,then thePop-Up Lab is ourfood truck, bringing our skills and experience tocollaborate with local experts inglobal locations.

Using our network to bring people togetherto solve problems

Despitethe sensitive nature of this topic,we found that peoplewereeager toget involvedto find solutions for suicide prevention.All of theparticipantshadboth apersonal and professional (i.echallenge in their organization) connection to this societal issue,andthey came together to solve it.

Usually when running aPop-Up Lab,weaim for a group size of six to eightparticipants. In this case, we had sucha strong interest fromcandidates that we chose nine: a diverse group ofre/insurers, insurers and consultants, many with operational experienceinactuary, claims,orunderwriting.

Participants of this Pop-Up Lab were from the following organizations:

Agrippa

Aviva

EY

Legal & General

MunichRe

Pacific Life Re

Reinsurance Group of America

SCOR

Vitality

Two experts in the suicide prevention field also joined a session on the first day as masterminds, generously sharing their knowledge and experience to help the project team complete empathy and customer journey maps. In addition, the participants grabbed inspiration from 17 lightning demos about male suicide prevention tactics used by others. With much motivation and purpose, the team cooked up a diverse set of ideas and solutions.

Injust three days thisfast-movingproject teamcreatedthree solutions tosavelives–atremendousfeat!Each solution targetssuicide preventionat adifferent level:specific, macro and strategic.Let’s take a look at what they cooked up:

Specific:This solution was formed to address the fact that a suicide of a relative can be a trigger event for other suicides. The project team came up with the idea for insurers tosend a handwritten condolencenote includinginformation on how to seek help and self-care toa suicide-relatedclaimant.This small but personal touch humanizes a currently formal touch point and could help reducethe claim suicide as a trigger event for another suicide among family or friends.

Macro:The next solution was a macro-level campaign topromote mental health awareness and human interaction in Londoncommunities.The project team envisioned this happening by placing thirty six-foot penguins around London, which would encourage people to stop, think and interact.

Strategic:The strategic level solution involved forming anindustry workinggroup that would catalyze actions within the insurance industry targeted at contributing to suicide prevention activities. The group wouldspanoperational teams(e.g. underwriting, claims) to address suicide from all perspectives in insurance.

Solving an industry problem in one locale can havea global impact

Theproblemof suicide is not limited to the UK.By devoting our attention and resources to thinking deeply aboutaproblem, it shines a light on root causes and issues that people may have ignored or overlooked.One of the biggest takeaways from this Pop-Up Lab was: don’t be afraid to tackle a sensitive subject.We all benefit when a workable solution is created, because itmay spark an idea that can help solve aproblem somewhere else.By looking atourindustry’s processes through the lens of suicide, we identified many simple steps that could be taken to improve things.

Similarly,there are other commonchallenges and problems that existacross theinsuranceindustry and global communities.Doing a deep dive on of these challenges in a specific region can trigger a positive change globally.

Want to get involved with suicide prevention?

Thank you to all oftheparticipantsforbringing theirinnovative mindsand compassiontogether for this project.If your organization is interested in joining this group of innovators for the next steps for this project, or if you have an idea for another social challenge in need of an insurance industry solution, please contact usathello@cookhouselab.com.

Thanks to Jonathan Hughes for sharing insights from facilitating the Pop-Up Lab to contribute to this blog.